


these words are all we have

by their_dark_materials



Category: Emmerdale, Roblivion - Fandom, robron
Genre: Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Drabble, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Happy Ending, Hint of Angst, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 16:26:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13815003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/their_dark_materials/pseuds/their_dark_materials
Summary: “It’s some kind of Insult Book,” Aaron announces after a few seconds of studying the object in his hands. “Can you believe the nerve of Liv?”Or, how the Insults Book originally came to be. [Based on this latest episode.]





	these words are all we have

It all starts when Robert overhears Aaron telling Liv, “You know Robert, he  _lives_ for the drama.”

“I  _heard_  that,” the older man calls out from the kitchen, gently putting down the dish he’s rinsing in the sink and turning off the tap. He turns to face both siblings, his rubber glove covered hands resting on his apron-clad hips. “And that's not true. I  _do not_  'live for the drama.'” 

“And what do you call  _that_  then?” Aaron asks, nodding at his fiance's dishwashing outfit before turning to once again face the TV screen, a big grin on his face. (He may not mean it, but it’s  _always_  worth it to wind Robert up.) 

“It’s called being a  _responsible adult_ ,” Robert answers back, switching the tap on again. “Something you’d know about if you actually bothered to help out with cleaning this mess you made.” 

(He says it like he always does anytime Aaron goes all out and makes one of his big Sunday morning fry-ups, without any real heat, but with a rhythm that comes from regular repetition. Because sometimes his fiance can be an idiot and decide to use  _every single_ pot and pan they own to prepare what should really be a very simple combination of dishes that usually only requires a _single_ pan.)

“He’s got you there,” Liv comments, not taking her eyes off the screen as she makes another bid in her battle for gameplay dominance over her brother. 

“ _I_  made breakfast,” Aaron calls out, punching some keys in rapid succession.

“ _You_ made a mess that just happened to _result_ in breakfast,” the older man had pointed out. “It’s kind of the  _opposite_  of cooking.” 

Liv snickers at that, causing Aaron to hazard a quick glance at her before giving her a friendly nudge. “I thought  _you_  were supposed to be on  _my_  side.”

“What?” She shrugs. “He's got you there. It was a solid burn.”

“If you liked it so much, maybe you should write it down and frame it,” the younger man grumbles sore at the fact that he’s taking a bit of a beating both in the game  _and_ in real life.

“Maybe I  _will_ ,” Liv responds, a little distracted by what's going happening in the game. 

Five minutes later and their match is over, Liv having won by a fairly wide margin. She gloats proudly, even denying Aaron a rematch when he asks for one.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand ya... Guess I need a translator, because I don’t speak  _loser_.” 

(Aaron gives her a pointed look, while Robert bursts out laughing behind the safety of the hardcover book in his hands.)

After 15 more minutes of her prolonged celebration, Aaron tells Liv to head upstairs and get started on her homework. When she points out he’s just doing this because he’s sore she won, he denies doing any such thing. (Even though all three of them know it definitely factored in  _more_  than a little bit.)

Liv tries turning to Robert for a show of solidarity, but he simply holds up the book (Paula Hawkins'  _The Girl On the Train_ ) opting to remain a neutral party instead. 

The teen voices her frustration and then stomps up the stairs, only to return five minutes later with a notebook that she wordlessly drops in Aaron’s lap before leaving again.

Curious, Robert leans over to get a look at it. The page is divided into three columns, with each of their names at the top of one. There are a bunch of sentences under his name, and one or two under Liv’s. Aaron’s column is noticeably empty. If they were keeping score (which the older man  _totally_  is),  _he’s_  currently in the lead.

“It’s some kind of  _Insult Book_ ,” Aaron announces after a few seconds of studying it. “Can you believe the  _nerve_  of her?” 

Robert gives him an intentionally blank look.

"I'm sorry," he says, working hard to keep a straight face even as his competitive streak begins to take over. "I don't speak  _loser_." 

And then, when Aaron glares at him, “What? You know me. Apparently, I _live for the drama._ ”

:::::

Strangely enough, none of them forgets the existence of the book; each of them taking turns entering any and all of the particularly memorable insults they continue to lob at one another with a growing specificity.

With her propensity for sharp digs and sarcastic nature, it comes as no surprise when Liv overtakes both of them, though Robert and his smart mouth give her a fair run for her money (like the time he calls Paddy, “an egg with personality” and Marlon, "a whiny old beanpole," and ends up being unable to eat at the pub for a week while Vic and Adam are on holiday). Aaron continues to trail behind both of them, even though he’s got some particularly spectacular ones filed in there — namely the time he’d cleverly nicknamed Robert “Sponge- _Rob_   _Spare_ -pants” after Jimmy had spilt some coffee all over him in the cafe, requiring him to go home and change his trousers. (Liv  _and_  Robert — albeit more reluctantly — had been impressed enough to let him keep repeating his joke a few times over the next couple of days.)

Still, there’s nothing like going up against a gobby teenage girl in an insult-based competition to realise just how out of their depth as parental figures they might be.

” _How_  are her Creative Writing marks  _so low_ when she keeps  _crushin’_  us like this?” Aaron remarks one night as they both prepare to go to bed.

“Probably because they’re not testin’ her on her ability to insult people. Though I’m sure some of those entries would make  _Shakespeare_ blush,” Robert replies, feeling the same kind of bafflement, but with an added feeling of _pride_. “Also, she hasn't been crushing _me_. I was in the lead last week.”

“Yeah, but you're not _anymore_ are ya?” Aaron responds, sliding under the covers. "Now you're a  _loser_ like  _me_." 

Robert moves closer to Aaron, rolling onto his side to face him. "Well, there's no one I'd rather lose with than  _you_." 

They only fall asleep — with satisfied grins on both their faces — two hours later.  

:::::

They’re at least 10 pages deep when  _Chas_  gets her hands on the book. She brings it up one evening when they’re all sat on the couch, rewatching  _Rocky II_.

“What exactly is this?” She says, standing in front of the television and blocking their view. “And  _why_  is it always on my coffee table?”

They all look amongst each other, willing one of the two to offer an explanation.

Eventually, it’s Robert who bites the bullet and takes one for the team, reasoning that he has the least to lose in this situation anyway, considering he’s hardly Chas’ favourite. “It’s just a bit of a friendly competition between the three of us to see who can come up with the best insult. That’s all.”

(They haven't really talked about any of this, not really feeling the need to add definition to this weird little competition they've been having. But it's the simplest — and most obvious — explanation, for something that ultimately makes very little sense outside of the three of them. Because you can't exactly tell your fiance's mother, "It's just an act of teenage defiance that got out of hand. But one we've kept doing because it's kind of brought all three of us closer together, and now my relationship with Liv is a lot better than I'd ever imagined, but I guess that's because teens just need some space to be themselves without judgement, and that's what this is in a way. Also, it makes us laugh sometimes.") 

“Is this how you all talkto each other when I'm not around?” She asks, slightly incredulous at this revelation. "Because there's some nasty stuff in here."

Thankfully, it’s Aaron’s turn to step in. “Well obviously not  _all_  the time. If that were the case, it’d be full right now.”

Beside him, on either side, Liv giggles and Robert hides a smile. (Everything that’s been recorded so far has been uttered over the course of  _one_ month alone. At this rate, they’re on schedule to finish the book by the end of the year. So  _maybe_  the older woman  _does_ have a point about the way they’ve been talking to each other. Though at this point they all know it's ultimately harmless and all of them would be hard-pressed to truly stop.)

Chas simply eyes all three of them. For a second it seems like she’s going to say something but then she just sighs and hands it over to Aaron. “If you say so.”

Then she leaves the room and they all let out a collective sigh of relief, the movie since forgotten. 

Eventually, the silence that's descended upon them stretches thin. 

“We can stop if that’s what you want…” Liv is the first to speak, and she doesn’t look at either of them as she says it, her fingers nervously playing with the edge of the couch cushion instead. “It was just a bit of a joke anyway.” 

Robert and Aaron exchange glances at that, each man sensing her reluctance.

“And miss out on all your smartass remarks. Not a chance,” Aaron tells his little sister, before looking back at his fiance's face. "Rob?"

“If we're going to keep teasin' each other, we might as well keep writing them down.” Robert replies, leaning forward to look at her too. “We just need to figure out what we’re going to do with all _these_.”

He takes the book from Aaron and flips through it, smiling at the few he recognises here and there. “You know, some of them really do deserve prizes.” (His eyes linger on that morning a few weeks back, when Aaron had seen his other floral shirt and exclaimed, "Are you  _trying_ to make us go blind?" Robert had challenged him to take it off him if he'd _really_ not liked it, and the younger man had taken him up on it, — making him _extremely_ late to a meeting with a client. He'd had to apologise to the woman profusely, but it had been _worth it_.) 

“Well, how about the best, _most recent_ insult gets to choose where we get our takeaways from?” The younger man remarks a few minutes later, quite pleased with this suggestion. 

Liv brightens at the prospect of that. She looks up and grins at both men. “That's great. Because I could  _really_  go for some pizza.”

“ _Great_ ,” groans Robert good-naturedly. “Now, we’ll _never_  get to pick where we’re eating from.” 

“Who even says  _she’s_  the winner?” Aaron questions, reaching to take the book back from the older man. “I’ve got some pretty good lines in there.” 

" _Good_? I think you mean,  _just above average_ ," Liv responds easily, her razor-sharp wit barely needing to warm up to deliver that burn. "If you're gonna try to beat me, at least  _try_ to win." 

Robert bursts out laughing while Aaron just turns and glares at him. “What happened to, ‘I’d rather lose with you’?”

“What? We’re still losing. Might as well enjoy it,” the blonde man says with a shrug, before tossing Liv his pen, “Write that in there.” 

Aaron just mutters something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like, " _Traitor._ " 

:::::

They eventually calm down with the trash talk, with Liv even ceding her title as reigning champ (usually to Robert, but once, on the rare occasion, to a nigh insufferable  _Aaron_ ) every now and then. And even during the times she continues to win, she does ask them what _they'd_ like to eat, rendering the prize a little useless. (Not that anyone minds.)

:::::

It eventually comes to a halt when Aaron gets sent to prison, neither Robert nor Liv feeling like continuing when the third member of their little family can't really compete. ("It just doesn't feel fair," Liv tells Robert when he hands her the book after she delivers a well-meaning insult about one of her teachers. "We  _are_ talking about Aaron," Robert had replied, attempting to make a joke. "It wasn't really fair to begin with." They'd both laughed at that, knowing Aaron's heart is too big and his heart too kind to really be much competition for either of them. But that  _is_ why they each love him.)

:::::

The book all but falls by the wayside when Aaron and Robert break up, seeing as neither man can find it in himself to tease the other, lest he makes matters worse. (Instead, it just sits there, every word in that book a loud reminder of happier — if somewhat ruder — times.)

When Liv gets back and finds out what happened, she takes to it with gusto, writing down line, after line, after line, of her thoughts regarding Robert Jacob Sugden.

Aaron tries to tell her it's okay if she misses him, but instead, her column just seems to grow longer and longer. Not that it matters. Liv's now in charge of ordering all their takeout, something they do with a fair amount of regularity now that Robert isn't there to cook for them. (It also results in a quite a few food-based digs at his expense — not that he's aware). 

Eventually, this too comes to a close, with Liv only jotting down the occasional insult when Aaron annoys her or she spots Robert in town, Seb in tow. Sadly, as she discovers, this isn't quite as fun. And she's not yet ready to acknowledge  _why_. 

:::::

It comes to her when they're both standing there in the Mill.

She's come home early from school to find her former brother-in-law standing in her kitchen, the smell of home-cooking in the air, and what appears to be a roast chicken in their oven. (The first one in  _months_ , since Alex couldn't do much more than fry some eggs and boil some pasta.) 

Liv stands there as Robert tells her that he and Aaron have decided to get back together again, and as much as the thought of that  _does_ excite her (the way it does all children of divorce who hear that their parents might be getting back together), it also causes all her walls to go shooting up. Only this time she's able to tell him — quite clearly too — that he didn't just wreck their family and hurt Aaron, he'd hurt  _her_ as well. 

He seems to get that —  _really_ get that. Because he winces when she says that it was  _Alex_ who talked her through all that awful stuff with Gabby (not that he knows about any of  _that_  yet) and that he'd pretty much disappeared when she'd needed him most. ( _Still do_ , her mind supplies unhelpfully, but she doesn't tell him  _that_. This is about protecting her brother and her from the destruction this man has the potential of unleashing on them.) 

And so she knows, in that way she's  _always_ known when to call bullshit with him — a byproduct of being _Aaron Dingle's_ sister — that he's missed _her_ just as much as she's missed him, and possibly even  _more_.  

"Liv, I promise you, I'm going nowhere," he tells her. A truth he believes fully ringing through his every word. "You're like a sister to me. I love you. And I'll never let you down again. I really wanna make this work, Liv. I'll do whatever it takes. Please. _Please_... Just let me make it right."

It's as he's pleading with her that she's reminded of all the times she'd just wished she could rage against him just _once_ , only to change her mind against storming down to Keeper's and do so because she was scared she might burst into tears and ruin the whole thing. However, now she realises that there  _is_ still a way for her to get her wish  _and_ have him put his actions where his mouth is. 

So she goes and fetches the Insult Book from under her bed, where she'd tossed it the night of her birthday party.  

"The Insult Book?" Robert asks, recognising it almost immediately. 

"Yeah, been making a few additions while you were gone," Liv tells him, looking him straight in the eye with her trademark blend of matter-of-fact defiance. 

There's a softening in his eyes; like he's realised just how much he's missed while he's been gone. But Robert doesn't protest what he knows is going to happen. Instead, he takes a seat and awaits his punishment. Liv flips to the entries from the day after she'd gotten back from the hospital after having lied for him, and she begins to read aloud... 

:::::

He's still sitting there fifteen minutes later, an impassive expression on his face as he listens intently while she runs through her more vicious insults, later shifting to a deep frown when she gets to the ones that came from a place of pain. 

She decides to stop around the third page, when she feels like they've _both_ had more than enough. Robert clearly understands where she's coming from, and she's already the achieved the sense of release she'd been searching for all these months. 

All that's left now is reconciliation.

Because as much as she's been saying she  _didn't_ want this — her family back together again, whole once more — she  _has_ wanted it. Because this house hasn't been too much of a home with one of them still missing. Because what started as a fun game had just turned awful and bitter and  _sad_ and she's been _more_ than ready for that to change. Because sometimes, when it's late at night, and you're filled with all the doubts that tend to run through your head at that late hour, you find yourself admitting that maybe the brother you need right then is the brother who's no longer there. 

And somehow, because he's Robert, and he's always been in tune with what she and Aaron want, he stands up and pulls her into a wordless hug, squeezing her tight for a few minutes before leaning down to plant a kiss on the top of her head. For once, she doesn't say fight the sappiness of the moment, and for that he's infinitely grateful.  

When they pull apart, the older man looks at her with a twinkle in his eye and says, "So, what do we tell Aaron when he gets back?" 

:::::

It's after tea, and they're all sitting on the sofa (Gerry included), having stuffed themselves with Robert's cooking, when Aaron first notices the book out on their coffee table. 

"Are we doing _this_ again?" He asks, looking from Liv (who's spread out on his one side) to Robert (who's leaning on him on his other). He gets his answer when both blondes make eye contact before launching into similar smiles. 

"Yeah," Liv informs him. "Unless you're afraid of a little friendly competition."

"What part of this was ever _friendly_?" Aaron questions, a note of mild sarcasm in his voice. 

"You're just sore because I called you an _idiot_ ," Robert teases, before leaning up to kiss his  _husband_. He gets denied by an unimpressed Aaron, who just gives him the shoulder instead... before thawing half a second later to grant him said kiss; both men still in that phase of being unable to stay away from each other for  _too_ long. 

"Can I join in?" Gerry asks, enthusiastic as ever. "I bet I'd be dead good at comin' up with burns. Jai's _always_ tellin' me I have a big mouth." 

"I don't think it counts if it's a  _self-_ burn," Liv tells him, shaking her head fondly at the teenage boy. 

"Oh come on!" He whines in return, turning to look at each of them in turn. "I promise I'll come up with the  _best_ insults." 

The three of them look at one another, a quick and silent family meeting like the type they used to do a little over a year ago.  

"Fine, put him in," Aaron finally agrees, handing the book, as well as the pen he's spotted on the table, to Liv. "But we're startin' over. New chapter in our lives and all that." 

He quickly turns to face Robert who's about to open his mouth, when he quickly says, "Unless you  _want_  us to break up again, you won't say this is only because I was losin'." 

"No, I was  _going_ to say, at least now you'll have company in  _last place_ ," the older man defends himself with yet another burn and a big flashy smile, unable to contain his competitive streak. Aaron gives him an unimpressed look before pretending to get off the couch and make good on his word — even though the slow reluctance of his actions give him away. (Like he would let one little joke undo all the effort he'd put into convincing the blonde the night before.) 

"Oh come on. I'm sorry.  _I'm sorry_ ," Robert says, still scrambling to grab the other man's arm so he can prevent him from leaving. (As much as he knows it's an act, he's eager to convey that he's not letting  _anything_ get in the way of their relationship — not even his own tendency to put his foot in his mouth.) "You know it's just 'cause I love it when you're grumpy." 

Aaron gives him a long considering stare, before finally deciding to sit back down again. When he does, Robert slides his hand into his, so their fingers are interlocking. He doesn't say anything, but it's easy to tell that he's pleased. (It also doesn't stop the younger man turning pink when Gerry, who's been watching this entire exchange, exclaims, " _Awww_...")

Liv shakes her head as she continues to write in the book. "You sure  _you're_ not the one living for 'the drama'?"  

**Author's Note:**

> As is the case with this show, Aaron Dingle can utter one brief throwaway line, and I'll spend almost a day obsessing over its origin story to the point of having to write something. However, over the course of writing this, I found myself going over and exploring Robert and Liv's recently mended relationship, and thought this might actually be a fun way to actually thread this little family (Gerry included) together even further (while also allowing Liv a chance for her to express her feelings beyond what we saw). 
> 
> So I hope you enjoyed it and that all the jokes and the insults worked and that they kind of fit the characters. (I'm at that point in writing this in which I can't really tell the difference between what's funny or insulting or neither.) But yeah, thank you so much for reading, feel free to drop any thoughts, comments, questions, or even concerns, that you have down below, or find me on Tumblr at rustandruin.
> 
> Happy Aaron and Robert are Officially Moved Back In Week!


End file.
